Avalanche

Chapter 4 | Grits N' Gravy

Ricky had been told by his father to go and get his teammates rounded up for the meeting who were seen snowboarding. He had no idea that he would run into the girl that had beat him on the half-pipe the day before. Akari Hayami, his new teammate.

How wonderful.

He also had no idea how much of a jerk Rob Haywood, the huge muscular guy was.

As they all followed his father back to the resort to start the meeting that was supposed to have begun now 40 minutes ago, Ricky attempted to put his initial distaste for his teammates aside. No matter what his first impression of them was, no matter what his impression of them in a year was, as long as they were as good as his dad claimed, things would turn out fine. No matter how much he disliked his teammates, he had a feeling he would always dislike Dion more. He had to be beaten at all costs. He'd lost to Dion too many times he cared to recall.
Dion and that wicked grin of his.
Ricky scowled at the thought of him winning Aspen Regionals.

Apparently, Rob noticed his scowl as they sat down in the meeting room. Rob gave him a smirk, as if seeing Ricky mad fueled him in some way.

Putting his grudges aside would be harder than he thought.

Ricky turned away from Rob and looked around the rest of the room. Everyone seemed to be feeling as uncomfortable as himself. His gaze skipped over Akari, not ready to acknowledge her anymore then he had to. He noticed Kemen Vasquez was quiet and sending an occasional uncomfortable glance at Rob. He guessed that their first time meeting wasn't all that great either. Kemen wasn't exactly a small dude. The Chilean was maybe six feet tall with a strong build. But with Rob and his sharp tongue, Ricky guessed it didn't matter how big you were in comparison to him.

He then turned to Tara, who seemed just as grumpy as when he first saw her. She was staring right at the floor.

Ricky's dad sat down at the head of the table, and also took his turn observing his new team. His gaze finally landed on his son, who offered a grim smile.

Then Benedict Winterborn began.

"Well, I certainly did not expect this to be the way we would kick off being a new team, with nobody showing up to the meeting. But I guess I deserve it for planning it the day after most of you flew in. Maybe we could start off with everyone going around and introducing themselves? Give your name, age, and number of years of snowboarding."

Rob loudly cleared his throat. "Rob Haywood, 23 years old, snowboarding 20 years."

20 years? That was ridiculous. Rob probably could only barely walk at 3 years old.

Akari spoke so softly it took Ricky a moment to realize she was talking.

" ........19 years old, I've been snowboarding for 10 years."

"Ricky Winterborn, 18 years old. Been snowboarding 12 years."

Kemen turned a head towards Tara, as if allowing her to go first, but she didn't look up from the ground.

"I'm Kemen Vasquez, 21 years old. I've been snowboarding for 14 years."

There was a short moment of silence before Tara finally lifted her head.

"I'm Tara Hunter, I'm 22 years old. I've been snowboarding for 2 years."

Rob snorted, and Ricky almost did too.

2 years? No wonder she was grumpy. She probably didn't even know what she was doing here.

Ricky glanced at his dad who had earlier claimed to know what he was doing when picking team members, but Ricky had to wonder.
Then Ricky recalled the last time he had underestimated a boarder, and resolved that she was some miracle rookie.